This lost novel is a little gem from the golden age of British detection. The novel is unusual in many ways. It’s not a whodunnit, because we’re there when the murder takes place in a British country house on Christmas Eve. Once the crime occurs, there’s no clever detective to follow; instead, Meredith skillfully outlines for the reader the many interactions among the dysfunctional Gray family that unravel the perpetrator’s cover-up and exonerate the innocent accused (for whom anti-semitism makes the accusation possible). The book breaks many conventions of the detective novel and yet it works as a set of chilling insights into the twisted ways in which families keep secrets and conspire to favor some members over others.